I will try to keep this as brief as possible, but there’s a lot. I’m at a complete loss right now and I really appreciate anyone that takes the time to read this and give advice. I’m so tired of this.
General background info:
1. I’m 20F, have worked in food service for 2 years, and 6 months in retail at my current job. I’ve always been very good at the jobs I’ve had, based on feedback from bosses, coworkers, and customers.
2. The only issue I’ve had at jobs is being late, admittedly, but never more than 10 minutes. Every time you are late/call off/break any other rule at my current job, it gets recorded.
3. My assistant manager, Melissa, knows my mom because they go to the same gym, but they aren’t friends, just acquaintances. She didn’t get me the job, I applied through the website and interviewed with another person.
4. I have 2 TikTok accounts with a decent amount of followers and I post a lot. I usually don’t remember most of the things I post. Seems irrelevant, but that’ll come back later to haunt me.
Actual story: In mid-October, 2 of my bosses scheduled me for a disciplinary meeting (Jeff (store manager) and Carl (other assistant manager)). I had a few call offs and tardies in my log, 4 total, so they scheduled the meeting to see what was going on. Meeting went well, I let them know it was for health reasons and they understood. Said they’d make a write-up of everything we talked about and meet back in a month to discuss progress. The write-up was sent to me, and Melissa was copied (important later).
That weekend, we had a staff meeting at 8am. I fell asleep at 6:30am that morning, so I inevitably slept through my alarm and missed the meeting. I texted Jeff and Carl apologizing and explaining why I didn’t show, but got no response.
The next day, my mom texts me that Melissa talked to her at the gym and she (my mom) was very concerned. Melissa had made it seem like I wasn’t showing up for any shifts and that I was in danger of being on probation, which was completely against what I got from Jeff and Carl. I’m close with my mom so I’ve been telling her everything that’s been going on, she tried to correct Melissa but she kept insisting that my mom got it wrong. I got the feeling she never read the email.
I was furious, I sent an email to all 3 managers to address my frustration. In a nutshell, I explained that I was confused why I was getting different information, and that I was frustrated that Melissa was speaking to my mom instead of me. My exact words were “I would appreciate not receiving second-hand information from my mother that contradicts what I’ve been told.” That was completely unprofessional, and I’m not a child who needs to be tattled on. And even if I was, it’s surely against the rules to talk about employees with people who don’t work there in the way that she was.
I first got a response from Carl saying that he was out sick and would respond later. Then I got a response from Jeff clarifying that what they told me was the truth. No response from Melissa. Next day, I go into work and find that that it’s Jeff and Carl’s last week there. Awesome, now I know nothing will be done. I thought about reaching out to the regional manager, but decided to let it go because I thought the issue would fizzle out. Silly me.
Mid-November rolls around and I’m supposed to have my follow-up meeting about my lateness, but it never happens. Oh well, I just thought Melissa forgot since she wasn’t the one who orchestrated the meeting.
Melissa gets promoted to temporary 90-day store manager until they find a new one. Last Monday (4 days ago), one of the supervisors (Natalie) got promoted to assistant manager. People were excited about this since she is generally a stable presence in the store. Not so much for me though. I once had a kidney infection and asked to go home due to pain but she wouldn’t let me leave until I finished tidying up the store (it’s huge). She finally let me leave after I started crying in front of customers out of pain.
The next day, I come into work 5 minutes late. I check in with my supervisor and she lets me know we’re having a meeting with Melissa before I get on the floor. I assume it’s about me being late again. Melissa starts of the meeting by saying I can’t be late anymore, and I’ll get a PIP if it keeps happening. Fair enough, I apologize, but then she lets me know that’s not why I’m in there. She said “this was brought to my attention by Natalie,” and pulls up one of my TikToks. I’ll try my best to describe it, but it was a trend using this filter that takes snapshots as you’re filming and turns it into a collage. People were using the filter to see if they were photogenic by using it while they were pretending to have a conversation with someone offscreen, so that’s what I did.
Melissa then tells me that this video is unprofessional and against social media policy. She claimed it was about her talking to my mom and me being upset about it. I was so thrown off and confused, which I expressed. She tells me that she talked to my mom because she was concerned for me, and that if I have a problem with that then I need to talk to her instead of making a TikTok about it. It’s immediately clear to me that she never read any of the emails from the other managers or me about that situation. It’s also clear to me that she doesn’t see anything wrong with what she did. I felt so defeated, so instead of reminding her of the emails, I just said I'd take down the video. I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
I realized later when I went to take the video down that the words I was mouthing in the video was me complaining about my boss talking to my mom. I just find it funny that the video is over a month old, you have to read my lips to know what I’m saying, and that Natalie just happened to report it the day after she gets promoted. Plus, I’ve posted hundreds of times on 2 different accounts and gotten millions of views and likes over time. This specific post was on my second account, which is not connected to my contacts and has a very small amount of traffic compared to my main account, and the post only had 50 likes.
Since then, other coworkers are starting to notice that I'm being singled out. I have no idea what to do. I used to have pretty bad anger issues, thankfully therapy fixed that, but this situation is bringing it back in stride. I just want to scream and throw things every time I’m there. I need to get out now.
Only problem is that I don’t have a job lined up. I live with my parents currently so I’m not on my own, but I obviously still need an income. I’m supposed to be working 30 hours per week (even though I’m part-time) for the next 2 weeks but I am genuinely so miserable and have no idea what my best option is right now. What should I do?